April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido
Mantega has asked Brazil’s state development bank BNDES to cut
the spread it levies on working capital loans, Folha de S.Paulo
reported, without saying where it got the information.

Mantega and BNDES’s president, Luciano Coutinho, are
studying how to guarantee that lower rates reach end borrowers,
the Sao Paulo-based newspaper said today. Working capital loans
below 10 million reais ($5.44 million) are often disbursed
through commercial banks, which add their own spreads, making
financing more expensive, according to the article.